HURIWA Condemns Attack On Imo Police Station, Killing Of A Female Student, Hotelier In Ogbomoso By Their Kidnappers in OYO
*Demands Tough Actions on Kidnappers Including Summary Trials and Execution
Prominent Civil Rights group, Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as horrendous, despicable and reprehensible, the killing by Fulani terrorists of the Proprietor of Tana Suites, Ogbomoso, Olugbenga Owolabi, and one of his workers, Rachael Opadele, a final year student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.
They were kidnapped a week ago and killed after the kidnappers collected the ransom they demanded.
Besides, HURIWA has condemned the bombing of a police formation in Imo State by a yet to be determined attackers who slaughtered four police operatives in the line of duty including some Women police operatives, an action that the Rights group said is unbelievably cruel and irrational even as the Rights group has condemned the Imo State Police command for blaming men of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) for the attack on its station at Agwa in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo state when it has no shreds of empirical and scientific evidence to nail the despicable crime to the self determination group.
HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, quoted Police’s statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Michael Abattam, also confirmed that four officers were killed in the attack just as the PRO in a statement said, “On 05/8/2022 at about 2300 hours, hoodlums suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militia affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN) attacked Agwa Police Station in their numbers.
“The hoodlums who came in two vehicles and a tipper, shooting sporadically, used a tipper vehicle in forcing the gate open to gain entrance into the station, throwing Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDS) and petrol bombs.
“The police operatives of the division joined by the Command’s Tactical Teams gave the hoodlums a stiff resistance, engaging them in a gun duel. The hoodlums who were fatally hit with a lot of casualty on their side, retreated, escaping in their vehicles.
“The fire which affected a parked private car and some motorcycles was later put off, preventing it from causing more damages. Fortunately, the building was not affected.
“In the attack, two suspects in custody escaped, four police officers gallantly paid the supreme price, while one rifle is yet to be recovered. Meanwhile, the area have been fortified with enough police operatives”, police authorities said.
HURIWA which said the sporadic attacks targeting strategic national security assets in Imo State are sophisticated and well coordinated incidents that should by now have become a thing of the past if the security agencies had adopted scientific evidence based and forensic investigations of all the various cases of attacks.
HURIWA however said it is likely that politicians and top security heads may be making a lot if cash off the security votes hence they decided to fall back in the adoption if what can at best be described as a primitive policing mechanism for the Imo State Police Command to always blame the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra as soon as any attacks happened and for over two years that this sinister campaign of terrorism against identified security assets in the South East the entire security institutions have failed to use scientific and professional mechanisms to determine and pin down these attacks to verifiable and concretely established suspects rather than the lazy pastime of often naming IPOB even without investigations and till date not one suspect is convicted in the competent court of law.
HURIWA has called for a more thoroughly professional approach to law enforcement actions I’m the South East including the use if modern technology of ascertaining with high certitude and conclusively, who the actual suspects are rather than always hang the entire crimes to a particular group as soon as the despicable attack occurs.
HURIWA which also challenged the governors of the 36 States of the Federation to take stiff legal and policing actions against daredevil kidnappers lamented that in the case of the recent gruesome execution of a female Student and the hotelier in Ogbomoso a Motorcycle Operator, who carried a family member with the ransom to the designated spot in the bush along Ogbomoso-Ilorin Expressway, was also killed while the passenger sustained injuries.
HURIWA lamented that the security forces were so incompetent not to have trailed the calls to the spots whereby the hoatages were kept to rescue them with minimal risks but the security forces decided to use crude techniques of display of unscientific presence to provoke the kidnappers to have the Victims shot dead by the kidnappers on Tuesday evening, August 2, after collecting N5 million as ransom.Bodies of the victims have been recovered from the bush and deposited at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital mortuary.
A Family Source said the kidnappers became angry and killed the victims when they noticed the presence of soldiers at the LAUTECH area.
It was gathered that soldiers had stormed Ogbomoso on Tuesday in order to beef up security as a result of increasing rate of kidnapping in the area.
HURIWA faulted the soldiers for not been professional and allow for the kidnapped victimsvtonbe free before they showed up.
The civil rights organisation is advocating for stiffer legal and prosecutorial actions against kidnappers just as the Rights group suggested that a law be made to fastrack the arraignment and conclusion of cases of kidnapping to last just a Month including all appeals arising from conviction or non conviction thereafter the suspects convicted should be executed by firing squads in the kidnappers’ community of origin to serve as deterrent.
The rights group regretted that both President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors are playing with the serious security breaches that kidnappers have assumed in Nigeria.
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